8/25/14

As I fret over this comma placement and that cover detail, I try to keep in mind the big picture, the thrill that it is for me (and hopefully some readers!) that my second book is almost ready to hit the shelves, actual and digital. Sometimes in our modern world it feels as if there is no real difference between the actual and the digital, and if you ask a teenager, there is in fact no difference. But I still like the feel of a book in my hands. I haven’t gotten an ebook reader yet either, despite the imagined convenience of not having to give over half my suitcase to books when I travel, though I am tempted. So Harry will be coming to both. She’s the main character. Here are a few hints of what to expect.

Great Dane Lovehttp://www.fansshare.com/gallery/photos/10975741/great-dane-shared-photo/?displaying

8/18/14

In some ways for me at least those two nouns—one ancient and one newly coined—are antithetical. Writing is a solitary activity, unless you count the company of one’s characters, who can honestly feel more real to me than people in the next room do when I am engrossed, either in my own work or in the work of authors I admire. Yet writers need to engage with the world more than ever before, more than book tours of finite term or occasional media interviews, and certainly more than the writers who worked as recluses and only ever spoke to their editors, as Salinger ultimately did. Now writers are expected to post and tweet and to consider singing on YouTube, anything to build their following, to engage with their audience, to sell. I never wanted to sell anything, yet I want to find readers. So here I am. I don’t tweet yet, and I only sing in the car, but you never know!

8/11/14

I had a close relative pass on recently. It was neither entirely unexpected nor even entirely unwelcome, given age and circumstances and health. Now the myriad details that require my attention focus it firmly in the here and now, as the mind will do to navigate rough waters before the bow. Still, I expect when the waters calm that my mind will return to the question that niggles at me: where is he now?

The Beyondhttp://www.allabouthappylife.com/wallpaper/dual_monitor/sky/sky-dual-screen.html

8/4/14

I saw a billboard for a cellular company: we can find you anywhere. Hmm. Well, I don’t want to be found everywhere, thank you very much. I don’t think anyone should. I don’t think it’s healthy or smart or necessary. But here we are. And we want to be found in an emergency, but it’s tricky how different people define emergency. For some it’s life in the balance. For some it’s a lost item. For some it’s a broken fingernail. You get my drift. Expectations. A tricky business. A friend says, in the Buddhist tradition, expect nothing, because then you are never disappointed. So how can I meet the demands on me, from family and friends and coworkers and community members and people I don’t know yet, in a reasonable way but still preserve a modicum of personal space, of time, of privacy? We all hear that privacy is dead, and perhaps that is true, but perhaps it is just hiding out, waiting for a safe moment to emerge. I will do my best to help it along, one unplugged moment at a time. Maybe it will become a trend. One that no one talks about.

Now that's private!http://hasanshaz.com/position-yourself-for-massive-success/